Hideo Kojima is widely considered to be one of the best creators in the gaming medium, and that notion has only been built on top of a consistent push for innovation and building games that stay with players long after the credits have rolled. There’s little doubt that out of all his creations, Metal Gear Solid is one of the most beloved and has garnered a huge legacy with multiple entries that are both functionally and visually distinct from one another.
After the infamous Konami-Kojima breakup, the Metal Gear Solid franchise was left shattered in ruins. The Japanese gaming giant tried to breathe some life back into the brand with Metal Gear Survive, and we all know that panned out. Now though, we are standing at a very interesting point because Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is just looming over the horizon. It’s not a secret that most fans would be skeptical of such a remake now that Kojima isn’t behind the reins, but Konami and Virtous Studios have managed to garner quite the confidence with its recent showcases to the point that I am genuinely excited for this release.
As someone who grew up with the PS2, most of my formative experiences have been playing through action-adventure games that were quite popular among friend circles at the time. I distinctly remember watching war movies about guerilla warfare and thinking to myself, this could be a really great concept for a video game. Sure, I had played the likes of Splinter Cell, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, or even previous Metal Gear Solid releases before – but none had scratched the itch that I described previously.
It wasn’t the time of widely accessible internet, so information about upcoming games and what to play was supplied by ever-growing friend groups rather than ranked online lists . I was earnestly searching for games that would explore this concept of guerrilla warfare, and someone recommended trying out Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which had just come out.
I immediately scrambled for cash and got myself a copy, and was absolutely blown away by what was on offer. It almost felt like Kojima had the same itch as me, but instead of searching for ways to calm that down, he put together a team and built a game that scratched every box. It stands tall as one of the best games in the series, but more importantly, it was a game that I must have spent hundreds of hours playing over and over again.
And now that we are getting to relive the glory days of Metal Gear Solid through the remake, I am really excited to revisit this classic all these years later. Much like most games in the franchise, Hideo Kojima wears his style of exposition-heavy storytelling as a badge of honour – and long, drawn-out cutscenes and introductions are a common occurrence for any Metal Gear Solid story. As a teenager living on sugary drinks and low attention span, it was customary for me to zone out during these emotional beats and just focus on getting to the meat of things – the sneaking, the beating, and all the carefully choreographed action.
But now that I am an adult with responsibilities and a newfound taste for nuanced stories – I am quite excited to revisit the game with a greater focus on understanding its complicated lore and unearthing the many layers of its characters, the frailties of war – the whole nine yards. It’s also great that Metal Gear Solid 3 is the chronological start of the whole timeline, so you don’t really need to have a complete understanding of what went down previously to make sense of whatever’s going on right now – which also makes it a lot easier to get into for newcomers to the series.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater was a game that felt way ahead of its time, and that could be attributed to not only how the game looked at the time, but also how it felt to play and how the developers were able to create such complex stealth mechanics that worked so well with one another. The boss fights with the likes of The End or Metal Gear Shahogod were some of the biggest highlights of the experience, and it shaped my gaming taste for years to come.
Metal Gear Solid 3 pushed stealth gameplay forward with its innovative camouflage ideas and smoother shooting mechanics, and that set the gold standard for stealth action games to follow. It played a lot faster than something like Splinter Cell, and had a great sense of flow to its gameplay proceedings that directly influenced developers for generations to follow.
Konami has really nailed the essence of the original game, and the power of current-gen hardware has allowed the team to really hone in on the visual end of the experience. Built using Unreal Engine 5, Metal Gear Solid 3’s remake flaunts some really great graphics and things like the foliage are brought to life through the use of high-quality assets and modern global illumination solutions.
Altering the gameplay can be a really risky task, and more so in this case now that the man behind the franchise is not a part of the project. Still, the developers have brought quality-of-life improvements with better animations and smoother gameplay systems that would feel like second nature to anyone accustomed to modern third-person shooters.
As such, what we have here is a really safe take on the original – and I think that most fans would agree that this is the best place to be. There are a couple of icks such as loading screens still being a thing among others, but it’s better than going all out on changing the core identity of the game for this remake.
I am particularly excited to revisit the sneaking part of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, because that’s where the heart of the tension and creativity in gameplay truly lies. The original taught me patience, improvisation, and how rewarding it feels to outthink rather than outgun your enemies.
Crawling through tall grass, carefully managing camouflage, and listening for enemy footsteps were some of the best moments that made me feel like a real operative deep in hostile territory. And now that the remake features better visuals and refined animations, I am quite stoked to see how much more immersive that experience will be. Apart from that, I am also quite excited to experience how much the developers have spared room for creativity – and how can players really tackle those challenges on their own terms.
While I’m glad the developers have avoided tinkering too much with the gameplay formula, I’m also curious about the subtle quality-of-life changes that could make these moments better without stripping away the challenge. Things like refined controls, better inventory management, and modern camera systems could enhance the flow while keeping the core DNA intact.
It’s pretty common to hear remakes being branded as a cheap attempt to grab some quick cash off widely beloved games, but we seldom talk about how they are an important way to preserve the emotional value associated with these games. You see, the best remakes try to recapture the same feelings that you got when you first experienced that game, complete with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.
Even though Metal Gear Solid 3 on its own remains a joy to play to this day, it’s not going to be as easy to revisit for players who are used to more modern graphics and other gameplay conveniences. As such, a remake not only allows us to revisit this classic in all its glory but also introduces some of the best experiences of our time to younger audiences who have grown up listening to our endless rants about the best games of our time.
You see, games are a very social experience for all of us. Despite the single-player nature of such releases, we love to talk about the best and worst parts of these adventures with our loved ones; we love to discuss all the personal stealth stories that we craft along the way – and Metal Gear Solid 3 has a lot of room for that thanks to its ingenious gameplay loop – so I’m also looking out to having drawn-out discussions with my colleagues and friends about reliving this piece of our collective childhood.
Despite those initial reservations, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is looking like a competent remake that’s equal parts an homage to the glorious past and a confident step towards the future. There’s a lot riding on its shoulders, and hopefully it will be able to fulfill its promises and maybe even revive the franchise in a new light.
//Extra Content
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is shaping up to be a faithful yet polished remake of the PS2 classic that defined stealth gameplay for a generation. While Kojima isn’t involved for this project, Virtuos Studios has surely impressed fans by preserving the game’s core identity while enhancing visuals with Unreal Engine 5, improving animations, and adding subtle quality-of-life tweaks. The original release is a very precious memory of my childhood, and it continues to serve as a formative experience that heavily contributed to building my gaming tastes – and the opportunity to replay that experience in a new light just feels like a dream come true for a long time fan like myself but it’s an even better opportunity for newcomers to experience the chronological start of Metal Gear Solid.
